Children’s spirituality and music
Ruth Wills is the Scripture Union evangelist for the North West She has recently graduated with an MA in practical and contextual Theology, specialising in children’s spirituality. She is also a qualified teacher and has several years of experience in school and church work.
Spirituality
The language of children’s spirituality is relatively new. For many years, the terms ‘spirituality’ and ‘faith’ have been regarded as synonymous by educators and religious leaders alike; the ambiguity through history of the distinction between religion and spirituality also may have deemed spiritual education for children as unnecessary, considering them only capable of spiritual experience at an age where they are able to understand it.
However in recent years, developments in research and education have led to a new consideration and definition of spirituality for children. Furthermore this has led to recognition that children have something to teach us. Jill Fuller says, “Children have much to teach us - the wonder of a small child seeing snow for the first time can awaken our sense of the miraculous.”
Elaine McCreery says that spirituality is ‘an awareness that there is something other, something greater than the course of everyday events’ but it is not easily defined. However, there is a strong belief amongst recent scholars that spirituality in innate and universal. Therefore all peoples of all ages can have spiritual experiences. It is made tangible in its distinction from, but relationship with faith: it is experienced as warmth, love, inspiration, wholeness, depth, mystery and personal devotions like prayer and meditation. From an anthropological viewpoint, Alister Hardy maintains that spirituality is biological, therefore transcendent over all religions and cultures, contributing to the survival of the evolving individual.
David Hay and Rebecca Nye, authors of the book ‘The Spirit of the Child’ (1998) and researchers who identified many spiritual aspects in children’s conversations, believe spirituality to be an innate human phenomenon autonomous from religion that can find expression in every dimension of life, including day to day occurrences. Nevertheless, they express a belief that spirituality also needs to be nurtured within some agreed metanarrative, of which organised religion can be a part.
From a biblical perspective, many verses endorse this viewpoint.
Genesis 1:26. “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us.”
Genesis 1:27. “So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female.”
1 Corinthians 3:10. “Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you.”
Ephesians 2:10. “God has made us what we are……..”
McGrath writes that Christian tradition has insisted that humanity is the height of God’s creation. The idea of ‘imago dei’ or ‘image of God’ expressed in Genesis 1:27 gives weight to this claim and the first chapter of this book recounts how God looked at his creation and saw that it was good. Other passages such as Psalm 139 - a meditation on the author’s perception of God’s purpose and design for life - reflect the understanding of the unique relationship between man and God. Augustine (cited by McGrath 1994, p.369) argues that the central element of human nature is the innate ability to relate to God, who made humans as spiritual beings in the way that he himself is spiritual. His desire is to be in relationship with his creation.
Therefore, it is the task of Christian educators to identify and nurture the spirituality of our children, in order to lead them into and strengthen their relationship with our creator God through faith and discipleship.
Music
My belief is that music is a wonderful vehicle for expression, growth and the nurture of spirituality. Stravinsky, a composer of the 20th Century said:
God is the greatest musician of all times, the greatest composer. Since I myself was created, I cannot help having the desire to create.
His sentiment is that art is spiritual because it is essentially born of the Spirit: he believes that human creativity is a reflection of divine creativity and can become a communication channel between God and man. It taps into a deep longing for the sacred in contemporary life, touching people at a level beyond and beneath emotion, will and intellect. It draws on a spiritual world beyond everyday and the listener, composer or performer is drawn into that world as well. Music has always been part of church life. In the Middle Ages, texts were set, as were liturgy & responses. In many churches today, psalms, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis will be sung at evensong.. Biblical passages have become great works in Oratorio form e.g. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, played regularly at Easter, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms.” This work was composed for the ‘Glory of God,’ his essential aim being to ‘promote a communion, a union of man with his fellow man and with the Supreme Being.
My belief is also that we are innately creative beings. Let’s look at the bible again:
Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning, God created the universe.”
Psalm 33:9. “When He spoke, the world was created: at his command everything appeared.”
John 1:3. “Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him.”
If we are made in the image of a creator God, therefore we must be creative people! And through creating, we can cultivate our understanding of who God is and develop in our ability to relate to Him.
As an educator, my aim is to use Music to nurture innate spirituality in children using a child- centred
approach and lead them towards:
- the truth about Jesus
- a deeper understanding of God
I fully believe that using music is a powerful way of teaching the truth about God and I have used music many times in school as part of R.E. or the spiritual life of the school. Children have come to learn about God for themselves by being involved in and engaging with a bible passage or story. The joy of group composition is that the music starts from the child. Each has a part to play which has come from within and is of his or her own creating. The blending of all these ideas and elements is a unifying experience; it is about community, belonging and inclusion; about bonds that do not restrain, but encourage corporate action. No-one is wrong and each child has a necessary contribution to make. I recommend you to“ have a go” even if you have a limited number of instruments, or even if you feel shy of music!!
Percussion instruments that I recommend you to have in your stock are:
rain sticks; finger cymbals; claves and woodblocks; a cymbals; a sort of chime bars; a tambourine; a tambour; a drum; a triangle and if at all possible a glockenspiel or xylophone. It can be an expensive task to build up a set of instruments, but if they are looked after well , they will last for a long time and provide the children with an amazing wealth of opportunity for co-operative activity. But equally you can make sounds using your body, or found sounds. You will be surprised what effects you can make by rustling empty crisp packets, tearing newspaper and hitting or shaking a Pringles tube (empty or full!)
Creating music is great fun and the children will have a wonderful time.